Systems for drilling wellbores into the earth for the discovery and production of hydrocarbons such as oil and natural gas have been developed in the prior art, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,443,241 and U.S. Publication No. 2010/0193198, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Some drilling systems include a tool for securing pipe segments to a pipe string and lowering the pipe string into the wellbore. These pipe segments may be casing segments which are connected together to line the wellbore. The drilling system rotates these pipe segments and/or the pipe string to connect the pipe segments together and to lower the pipe string into the wellbore.
It may be necessary to secure components of the drilling system against the torque that is applied to rotate the pipe segment and/or pipe string. For example, some components of the drilling system may be coupled to feed lines or systems that are not designed to rotate. Some drilling systems are designed to provide torque reaction with brackets or other structures attached to the drilling rig frame, but these systems are difficult to design and install on each individual drilling rig. Accordingly there remains a need for a compact and effective torque reaction device for a drilling system.